The House That Built Me
by gabby227
Summary: Takes place after season 2, but before season 3 starts.  After finding out that Carol is going to sell her parents' house, Elena goes back to the house to remember all the memories that were shared there. one-shot.


**A/N: This is a one-shot written to the song, **_**The House That Built Me**_** by Miranda Lambert. I love the song and I figured it would go good in a fic. It takes place during the end of Season 2/before season 3. So, spoilers up to 2x22. This is mostly an Elena-centric fic.**

**Oh yeah, and I'm getting an update ready for **_**Unbroken**_**. I know it's been a few days, but I'm stuck, and that's one of the reasons that I wrote this. I needed to occupy my time to try to see if I can get the writer's block for that story to go away.**

Elena had lost a lot. Okay, so Stefan kind of left on his own free will, but she had also lost Jenna and John. John Gilbert wasn't the best human he _could _have been, but in the last year, he had been more of a father to her than anything, and losing him felt like it ripped her heart right out of her chest. And Jenna – losing Jenna hurt ten times worse than that. Maybe it was that she and Jenna had a better relationship than her and John, or maybe it was because Jenna was killed right in front of her. She remembered seeing Isobel sun herself, and she remembered how difficult that was to take in. But this was her aunt; Jenna was her family and she cared about her very much.

Elena lived in the boarding house now, with Damon, and one morning she received a phone call.

"They're what?" she asked into the phone, not believing what she just heard. It couldn't be.

"It's your mom and dad's house, Elena, but they're selling it." Sheriff Liz Forbes said on the other side. She wasn't really that close to Elena and Jeremy, but with everybody they loved gone, she felt that she needed to tell them before they heard it somewhere else.

"Why?" she felt the tears start to stream down her cheeks. She could _not_ believe that this was happening.

"Because everybody who had ownership of that house is dead, Elena. Your parents are dead. John is dead, and so is Jenna. Since that was technically John's house, he put it in the will that it goes to the council. But, since Carol is the head of the council, she decided to sell it.""

Elena's eyes grew wide, "Carol Lockwood?"

"Yeah, Carol Lockwood. She's the mayor; she can do pretty much whatever she wants to do."

"Does Jeremy know?" Elena asked her, and she heard Liz sigh.

"No. I wanted to be sure that you were the one that told him."

"Thanks, Liz. I'm going to go home and let him know. Maybe he can live at the boarding house with Damon and me for a while."

Liz was weary about two humans being around a vampire like Damon, but it was obvious that Elena trusted him, so she wasn't going to try to lecture her. She knew that Elena had lost enough, and Liz was surprised that she had the strength to get out of bed every morning. She knew that, if it had been her, she probably would have succumbed to the depression, but not Elena. Elena was the strong one.

Elena got off the phone with Liz and she saw Damon staring at her. "What?" she asked him finally.

"So, they're selling your parent's house, huh?" He asked, a sullen expression on his face. Elena finally looked up at him and he saw how hard she was taking the news. She had tears streaming down her face, and the one thing that he wanted to do the most was pick her up and hold her. But, that would be overstepping boundaries, as Elena was _still_ Stefan's girl, and Damon wanted her to trust him, not be afraid of him.

"I, uh, I gotta go," Elena stammered, "I gotta talk to Jeremy. Is it all right if he –"

"What? Stays here?" Damon asked, and Elena nodded. "I don't have an issue with it; we've got plenty of rooms in this house, after all."

"Thanks, Damon," she said, after a moment. She picked up her keys and her jacket and said, "I'll be back later."

-x-

As she walked up the sidewalk, Elena sighed and had to fight the tears from coming. She walked into the house, going straight up to Jeremy's room. Elena knew that Jeremy was still angry over Anna and Vicki's deaths, and she was almost afraid of what he was going to be like when he moved on to mourn Jenna and John. She walked into his bedroom, checking the time, and then pulling his curtains open.

"What the hell, Elena?" Jeremy asked, opening his eyes. "It's fucking bright out there."

"I know, but I have to talk to you," Elena said, sitting on the edge of his bed. She took a deep breath before telling him everything that Liz had told her. She watched his expression change as she relayed the message to him.

"You're kidding me, right? Please say that you're kidding me."

"It's no joke, Jer," Elena said, watching him closely. "I just got the news from Sheriff Forbes this morning."

"Elena, this is the only house that we've ever lived in, since forever," Jeremy whined a little, "Where are we supposed to go now?"

"We are going to stay at the boarding house, Jer," Elena said, "Damon said we could stay there for a while."

"Wait a minute, Elena," Jeremy said after a moment, a puzzled expression on his face, "Who's selling it?"

"Carol Lockwood."

"But this is mom and dad's house," Jeremy said. "Don't they need our permission or something?"

Elena shook her head slowly, "No, Jer. It was technically John's house, and in his will he left it to the council. Carol's head of the council, and therefore, she can do whatever she wants to do with it."

"This fucking sucks," Jeremy muttered, and for once, Elena agreed with him. This just wasn't fair.

"Pack up the stuff that you want to take with you right now, Jer, and you can take my car and go to the boarding house. Damon's already said that we can stay there as long as we want."

"But I _don't_ want to stay there," Jeremy whined. "I want to stay _here_."

"Look, I know that this predicament sucks majorly, but we have got to do what we've got to do. Besides, I thought you liked Damon?"

"I do. I just…all of our memories of Mom and Dad are in this house, Elena. Every last one of them."

Elena nodded before reaching over to hug her brother, "I know, Jer. But we're going to get past this, I promise."

Elena went into her room to pack up her belongings and then turned to her mirror. There were pictures taped to it; pictures of her, Bonnie and Caroline in the back yard, pictures of her parents and Jeremy at one of the barbeques they used to have, a picture of her and Jenna from the last barbeque that they had before she died. Elena was going to miss this – she was going to miss this house. She knew every nook and cranny that was there – that was, after all, her house.

Part of her was angry. She hated Carol for selling it, but she also knew that Carol probably didn't care about how she felt. Part of Elena was sad that John had died, but the other part of her was fucking furious that he had even left the goddamn house to the council. _I guess he preferred them over our family_, Elena thought bitterly.

She looked outside her window that overlooked the backyard. She sighed, remembering all the memories that had been made there. Water balloon fights with Bonnie and Caroline, barbeques with her parents, water gun fights in the summer with Jeremy. She looked at her window after a moment, remembering how many times she used to sneak out at night, and then sneak back in at dawn. There was so much she was going to miss. This house represented more than memories to her. It represented that, no matter how bad things were for you, you still had somewhere to go.

Elena shrugged; maybe that was what the Salvatore boarding house stood for now. Like, it had switched. Knowing that the boarding house was definitely hers, after they made it legal, that made her feel a little safe. It _was_ her own safe house, as Stefan and Damon had said before. Now, she was just going to have to have that.

-x-

It was almost six o'clock and Elena was still in her house. She was going to refer to it as her house until it wasn't. She was sitting on the floor of the living room, going through picture albums. There were so many memories in this house, and they were going to lose them. It was almost as if none of the memories ever existed.

"Elena?" Elena looked up and saw Damon standing in front of her. She smiled weakly.

"Jeremy came to the boarding house, like, three hours ago. What's taking you so long?" Damon went over to sit on the couch and Elena got up, and sat beside him.

"They're selling my house, Damon," Elena said, her lips quivering. "They're selling my house, and I am totally helpless to stop it."

Damon wrapped his arms around her and held her for a long minute. She snuggled into his body, "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked, confused.

"For being here for me. It actually means a lot more to me than you'll ever know."

Damon smiled, "I love you, Elena, and I am not going to just sit there while you're in so much pain. I'm sorry that you had to go through everything in such a short period of time, and with that, I feel helpless. I know you don't want me here, holding you –you'd rather it be Stefan. But Stefan isn't here for you, and he should be." Damon was secretly pissed at Stefan for going through with Klaus' plan. Yeah, Stefan had saved his life, but Elena needed him here right now, and where was he? He had chosen Klaus over his own fucking girlfriend.

"I miss Stefan, Damon," Elena said after a moment, "but I'm really glad that you're the one who's here, holding me. This just feels right to me."

"You know, Elena, it's just a house," Damon said, looking her in the eye. "You can make more memories somewhere else."

"I know," she half-whispered, "but it won't be the same."

She _was_ right, after all. No matter what houses she lived in in the present, she would never forget the memories made in this one. Not ever.


End file.
